


I'd Love to Change the World

by oppressa



Series: Kurt and Raven, Raven and Kurt (After Berlin) [6]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) - Fandom
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), Constructed Reality, Gen, Happy Ending, Illusions, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Insanity, violent fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-14 21:44:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7191821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oppressa/pseuds/oppressa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason shows Raven a past where she kept Kurt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'd Love to Change the World

She stops before she swipes her stolen card and enters the room – after the maze of corridors that lead her here – and changes her physique from that of a nondescript scientist to Stryker's himself. She figures it will calm the person she's about to see and make it easier. She does not expect the look of venom it gets her from the boy in the bed. Not that it really matters.

Stryker's son is skinny and sallow, lanky under the covers. It doesn't escape her notice he's about the same age as hers. Maybe he even looks like how Kurt would if it weren't for his fine dark fur and demoniacal features. But his eyes are unusual, one blue, one green. A mutation. How absurdly ironic. She wonders if there's any more to it than that – no wonder Stryker keeps him here if that's the case. She assumes there's something wrong with him, swamped in his hospital bed. There's nothing to confine him there, apart from various IVs looped about his person. Carrying stuff in to the bloodstream, or sucking it out. Medical tape hides the places where they pierce his skin. Perhaps he needs them to survive. Or perhaps he is locked in a prison of his own mind like so many of Stryker's subjects. This would probably inspire pity in Kurt. Charles would try to save him, help him, mend him. Raven doesn't really care what his condition is, since she's going to put him out of his misery. Get to Stryker in the same way he tried to get to her. Even if the boy only means something to him in terms of research, he'll understand.

She sits by the bedside and flips back to her natural form, wanting to scare him before she plunges the needle into his neck. His hand spasms slightly, but that's the only reaction.

“Hello, Jason.”

He says nothing, just stares with that mismatched, assessing gaze. Maybe he's mute. He tilts his head, raises the hand until it stills, curls the thin fingers. And then, Jesus, he _smiles_ at her.

   
  


The baby comes out blue, like she did, the physical mutation doesn't wait. He's covered in fur the colour of the night sky, his eyes closed most of the time to begin with but like carnelian stones with a fire inside when they're open. She's glad they resemble hers, and that he isn't the same pulsating red as Azazel. She can't teach him to use that tail as well as his father could but he's made it clear he isn't interested in their son. Raven just wonders all about him, what's going on behind the funny facial expressions he makes, what it means when he stares at her, what he'll be able to do, when he's older.

She sees in him that existence is so very fragile. Kurt gets measles like any other kid, from the children he plays with in the village, and she nurses him in their forest cottage, singing him to sleep. They speak German at home, mostly. It helps her forget what she once was and remind her this is her life, now. Just her and her child and the people that were kind enough not to drive them out.

Years pass. Just before he turns thirteen, he teleports for the first time, and he's delighted. She is happy he enjoys his power, but less excited – it seems she is still unique (alone) in the world. He does it all the time, around the house, for no real reason. He's not very accurate, at first – he bumps into walls and falls, breaks things when he lands, until she snaps and tells him _no more teleporting indoors._

“Habe ich etwas falsch gemacht?”

He makes her feel so unnecessarily tough.

“Nein, baby.” She says. “Du bist atemberaubend. Beruhige dich einfach.”

She raises him to be proud of himself, tells him he's beautiful at every opportunity. They don't mix with humans too much, but remembering Charles, she teaches him to be respectful. She doesn't want Kurt to go off on the wrong path, the one she so nearly did. But she doesn't think there's much danger of that. He has a very gentle soul, a very fair mind. _Incorruptible_ , she thinks. Unlike her. Perhaps one day she'll take him to meet his uncle.

Four more years, and she does nothing about that. Kurt could go and explore the world himself now, yet he's still attached to her in many ways. He says he doesn't want to ever leave. She knows that eventually, he will. The wall is no barrier to him. Russia, England, America...he could go anywhere he wanted, East or West. It's less likely he could find a place straight away, though she's fairly certain he'd get by on his completely genuine friendliness and unbounded enthusiasm for anything new.

 

She returns from getting their supper from the nearest farm to find their home is on fire, and there's an odour of brimstone in the air she hasn't smelled for so long. No, no no, _no_. She drops everything she's carrying and runs in, the flames catching at the dress she wears.

Kurt hangs upside down in his father's arms, exhausted, his crucifix dangling just above the floorboards. Wherever he tried to go, Azazel would have dragged him back.

“He let me in.” Azazel tells her. She can see that's true on Kurt's terrified face, and how much he regrets it. But there was no point denying him – Azazel doesn't need to be _let in_ anywhere. “I'm no stranger to him, Raven.”

“Don't hurt him.” She pleads, though it's too late for that. “It's not his fault, anything --”

“No.” He says. “Of course not. You have made him soft. A mockery of my blood. I'll make him strong again. And if not, it's no loss.”

Kurt calls out to her once, and then they disappear, the air burning in Azazel's wake. He's as good as dead. She might as well stay here and be incinerated.

Her wordless screams merge with somebody else's, and the vision comes to an end.

   
  


She's on the linoleum floor of the holding room, about to drive the needle into her own chest. As for Jason Stryker, Kurt's biting him, savagely ripping out his tubes, his tail hitting him simultaneously like some kind of crazy lash with a mind of its own.

She gets up and grabs him, spit spraying from his mouth as she pulls him away. Alarms start to go off, possibly rigged to detect any irregularity in Jason's heart rate or breathing. In his face, though, she sees disappointment, as if he would not have activated it himself. One more image flashes into her mind, of him dying, against blood splattered sheets. She needs to use all her strength in order to stop Kurt diving forward again, with him kicking, snarling, trying to break out of her hold, mad with his own instincts and Jason's invitation.

“Let's go!” She spins him around, yells into the sensitive shell of his ear, hoping that'll break through. “Let's _go_ , Kurt, now!”

 

Travelling with Kurt is actually pretty disorientating. It doesn't affect him too much, just one person. She's panting on the lawn of the X-mansion as he wriggles out from under her, all filled with righteous ire.

“You shouldn't have stopped me.”

“You little asshole! What did I tell you about coming after me?”

“But he was going to make you --” His face falls, but then he lifts his eyes defiantly. “I'm not sorry.” For once.

Her fear for him dying down, she clasps him to her so tight, bent forward, his chin resting on her shoulder. “I am. You were very brave, Bärchen.”

He shivers, the way he tends to, being held. “Why did he _want_ us to kill him?”

She shrugs. “I guess he doesn't have much of a life.” She's thanking god they weren't _introduced_ before, when Kurt was trapped only rooms away.

“Is that enough for you?”

Well, yes and no. If she sees Stryker again, she won't hold back. But knowing he puts his son through the same hell as he put hers, or even worse, and that's the sort of thing Jason inflicts on others, whatever came first – it does change her priorities somewhat.

“You're enough for me.” She says. She remembers when she took him out of that club, and she told him she was no hero. So strange to tell that cowering waif it's him that makes her content after so many lives in different guises didn't. But being a mother, his mother, that's the one. “You're more than enough.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Perhaps it wasn't obvious but I just wanna say how much I love Jason and am sad he has only been mentioned very briefly in the prequel movies so far. And I would have liked to give Azazel a break from being a meanie but I think that in the comics he tries to sacrifice Kurt or something, so I went along those lines instead...
> 
> Here's what the German was *meant* to mean:  
> Habe ich etwas falsch gemacht - Did I do something wrong  
> Du bist atemberaubend. Beruhige dich einfach - You're amazing, just calm down.  
> Bärchen -- um, little bear. I'm not sure if I used it right. I wanted something to associate with bravery but it's probably more like 'teddybear'!
> 
> This is the end of the series so thank you very much to everybody who has been reading this and people who commented, bookmarked or left kudos, that was really nice of you!
> 
> Title by Jetta.


End file.
